Abstract

We look at the relationship between efficient preconditioners (i.e., good approximations to the discrete inverse operator) and the generalized inverse for the (continuous) advection-diffusion operator -- the Green's function. We find that the continuous Green's function exhibits two important properties -- directionality and rapid downwind decay -- which are preserved by the discrete (grid) Green's functions, if and only if the discretization used produces non-oscillatory solutions. In particular, the downwind decay ensures the locality of the grid Green's functions. Hence, a finite element formulation which produces a good solution will typically use a coefficient matrix with almost lower triangular structure under a "with-the-flow" numbering of the variables. It follows that the block Gauss-Seidel matrix is a first candidate for a preconditioner to use with an iterative solver of Krylov subspace type.